Later this month Hillsborough Circuit Judge Monica Sierra will leave for three months in the Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank. Her commitment to doing her part by traveling to a dangerous part of the world – to help make some lives better – is admirable. In the abstract.
Were she only taking food and humane intentions it would be unequivocally praiseworthy. But she’s also taking Bibles, under the aegis of the Living Bread International Church.
In an area historically wracked by sectarian violence and in a world too fraught with fundamentalist cherry picking of holy books, is now — if any — the time for proselytizing among the Palestinians?
And isn’t it more than ill-timed and unwise? Isn’t it also arrogant?